Vibrotactile spatial acuity on the torso: effects of location and timing parameters

Abstract

The processing of spatio-temporal vibrotactile patterns by the torso was examined in two experiments. The first investigated the spatial acuity as function of location on the torso. A uniform acuity between 2 and 3 cm was found, except on the body midline where acuity was about 1 cm. This favorable effect was hypothesized to be caused by specific processing characteristics of the central nervous system. The second experiment focused on the effect of timing parameters in a localization task. The results indicated that localization performance was closely related to both temporal ordering and apparent motion. The results can be used to optimize torso display design and the patterns presented on those displays. Also, they demonstrate that even the most advanced displays have not reached the borders of the processing capacities of the torso.